Technology for embroidering on a production basis is described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,800 “Embroidery Apparatus” and elsewhere in the art. In connection with the present invention, embroidery manufacturing comprises use of a fabric-holding device, also known as embroidery frames, hoops, rings, and other terms. In factory production, the device is removably mounted on an embroidery machine, to hold fabric or other material so it can be embroidered. Typically, a first fabric-holding device will be removed from the machine after an article has been machine-embroidered. Then a second like device holding a second article will be quickly inserted into the machine and the second article will be embroidered, and so forth, on a repetitive basis. It follows that the fabric-holding devices have to be loaded and unloaded quickly and consistently.
In typical present practice, fabric is captured between the outside surface of an inner hoop and the bore of an outer hoop. The hoops are held in place by friction, when the outer hoop presses the fabric radially inward, against the outside surface of the inner hoop, as illustrated by FIG. 2 here, discussed below. Typically, an outer hoop has a split, the opposing features of which define a gap. And the diameter (or comparable dimension of a non-circular hoop) is adjustable by means of a screw which part of the closure assembly associated with the split. The closure enables a user to adjust the bore dimension of the outer hoop and obtain the proper tightness in the fit with the inner hoop and resultant good tightness of the fabric. It follows that the dimension of an outer hoop has to be changed according to the thickness and other properties of the fabric or garment being embroidered. It is desirable to improve the speed and repeatability of making such adjustments.
In another aspect of mass production embroidering, a patch, pocket or other sub-element is embroidered and affixed to a larger article, such as a garment. During that process the smaller sub-element has to be held in position within the opening of a hoop, while it is worked on, to stitch and secure it to the larger article which is held within the opening of the hoop.
A similar problem is presented when an article is small relative to the size of the hoop which is being used. For example, suppose a belt or strap is being embroidered. One way of holding such smaller items within the opening of a hoop is described in Schlomeke et al. Pat. Pub. No. 2001/02776674. Further improvements are sought. A small item, or a fabric sub-element which is being attached to a larger fabric item during embroidering, must be reliably and consistently held in position during the stitching process. And a fixture which holds a smaller piece of fabric should be able to be positioned quickly and easily with respect to a hoop, when the hoop is placed in an embroidery machine.